A flawless rehearsal? No glitches in last night's world ... - MOLA

Turning
Oh, the stories orchestra librarians
can tell. There’s the one about the
third horn who arrives at rehearsal only
to discover that he has left his parts
for the day’s session at home. Or the
young composer who, channeling one
of Mozart’s less attractive traits, doesn’t
complete her commissioned score until a
few days before rehearsals for the world
premiere. And did you hear about the
player who wanted a section of a part
s y m p h o n y
Score excerpts © 1946 The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. Copyright renewed Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., sole licensee. Used by permission.
the Page
by Wynne Delacoma
A flawless rehearsal? No glitches in last night’s
world premiere? Musician-friendly sheet music
prepared by an orchestra librarian using the latest
digital tools may have saved the day.
transposed from clarinet in C to clar inet
in A? ASAP, of course.
These stories tend to have happy endings.
And more and more it’s because of the
latest additions to the orchestra librarian’s
professional toolbox—the scanners, the
software with names like Sibelius and
Finale, the PDF files, the industrialstrength
printers, copiers, computers, and
fax machines of the digital age.
Mention digital technology and most
A condensed part-sheet
prepared by librarians at
the National Symphony
Orchestra instructs
the first violins in
cutting from rehearsal
5 to rehearsal 20 of
“Buckaroo Holiday”
without page turns
(left). With fewer notes
to play, the English
horn player (below)
makes the cut following
instructions on a Post-it
Note attached to the
publisher’s version of
the part.
peo ple in the orchestra world think of
con cert streaming, Internet broadcasting,
web site content, and self­produced CDs.
Lib rar ians are often consulted on such
issues, especially when questions of copyright
and fair use arise. But those activities
concern the way orchestras record and dissem
inate performances; librarians use digital
technology every day to help produce
those performances in the first place.
“I don’t think it’s transformed what we
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58
Responding to a conductor’s request, a New
York Philharmonic librarian altered three
measures of the third-trombone part to
Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, substituting notes
that duplicated the double-bass line. The
original is shown above, the customized
version below.
Musical excerpts courtesy New York Philharmonic Library
do yet,” says Lawrence Tarlow, principal
librarian for the New York Philharmonic.
“But it’s certainly a train with a very bright
light coming down the track.”
For nearly the entire history of symphony
orchestras, composers hand­wrote
their music and passed it on to copyists and
pub lishers, who printed both full scores
and instru mental parts. Orchestras bought
or rented scores and their attendant parts,
and one of the orchestra librarian’s jobs was
to correct any misprints by hand. They
marked each part with bowings and other
interpretive details required by the conductor,
and made sure that the parts were clearly
organized, crisply legible, and assembled in
neat, organized binders. Their final task was
ensuring that the right parts ended up on the
right stands by rehear sal time.
With the advent of copiers and fax
mach ines this particular strand of the lib ­
rar ian’s job became a little quicker and
easier. In recent years, however, the librarian’s
ages­old task of getting the music
from publisher to player has taken on
Librarians in Concert
Michael Runyan, a harmonica virtuoso who also serves as principal librarian at the Indianapolis
Symphony Orchestra, takes comfort in the fact that orchestra librarians need not toil away in
isolation from one another. The Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association, known as MOLA, has
“personalized the pub lisher-to-orchestra
relationship,” says Run yan. “We know who
we’re talking to on the phone, and we can
commiserate in each other’s troubles.”
Founded in 1983 following a meeting of
25 U.S. and Canadian librarians in Phil adel phia, MOLA today links more than 240 libraries at
symphony orchestras, opera and ballet companies, music academies, and professional bands
and ensembles; its mem bership embraces organizations in North and South America, Europe,
the Middle East, Africa, and Australia. Services include the quarterly newsletter Marcato; an
annual spring conference (this year it takes place in Nashville from May 31 to June 2); and an
online discussion forum.
Though crucial to orchestras everywhere, managing a library of scores and parts is an activity
well below the radar of not only the concertgoing pub lic, but of many orchestra professionals.
For this reason MOLA has teamed with the Orchestra Lead ership Acad emy of the League of
American Orchestras to present a biennial sem inar in orchestra lib rarianship just prior to
the MOLA confer ence. In making this specialty a topic of concern for Orchestra Leadership
Academy participants, “We’re hoping to reach the uninitiated,” says Marcia Fara bee, librarian
of the National Symphony Orches tra and now in her third term as president of MOLA. More
information about this organization—and a good introduction to orchestra librar ianship for
the “uninitiated”—can be found at mola-inc.org. —Chester Lane

an added dimension. More and more
composers are writing music on computer,
and more music publishers are issuing it
electronically. They send scores and parts
as PDFs or other types of digitized files,
and the orchestra librarian is responsible
for printing and distributing them.
“Digital technology affects how we get
music and what we do with it when it gets
here,” says Michael Runyan, principal
librar ian with the Indianapolis Symphony
Orchestra. “We still buy music on pieces of
paper. But when we buy a new edition or a
new publication of some sort, most often
things have been computer­engraved.
That can be good and bad. Often it looks
nicer, but if the editor or engraver wasn’t
skilled, it can actually be harder to use.
If you don’t have a master working at the
computer, it does you no good.”
Master music copyists or engravers
know that page turns must come at a point
when a violinist or a flutist can actually
free up a hand to turn the page. They
s y m p h o n y
know that the length of a bar depends on
the number of notes in it. They are aware
that printed music has a visual rhythm
that can either help musicians or hinder
their performance. They understand that
performing from a page of printed music
notation propped up several feet away on a
music stand is very different from reading
a letter or a magazine.
“Some of the decisions [made by computer­engravers]
are crazy,” says Run yan.
He notes that a simple thing like page
size—usually 8½­by­11 inches for computers,
but either 9½­by­12 or 10­by­13
for music parts—can be a major stumb ling
point. Runyan remembers get ting a “new,
supposedly critical edi tion” of a standard
19th­century work. “Know ing that they
had to stick to a 9½­by­12­inch format,
the publisher gave us [a copyist’s] image
on the page that was minuscule, with
huge margins around the outside.” When
publishers issue music as a PDF file, librarians
cannot simply reformat an over sized
“If the copyist really
knows his or her
craft, we’re okay.
But if they kind of
know it, then we end
up rescuing them.”
—Marcia Farabee, librarian,
National Symphony Orchestra
page with tiny notation by shrink ing the
margins and enlarging the type; they may
need to make a printed copy and do their
reformatting at the copy ing machine—
sometimes with the help of such ancient
tools as pen and ink, scissors and tape.
“The bulk of the PDF files we get
are designed for 8½­by­11 sheets,” says
Marcia Farabee, librarian of the National
Symphony Orchestra and president of the
Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association
(see “Librarians in Concert,” page 58).
“Un less the copyist is really software­savvy,
the 8½­by­11 print looks small, even if it’s
not. And you might have something like
four whole notes, one in each bar, that
take up a whole line. Someone who was
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59

60
“We have composers
who really work early,
but others are having
a tough time. If it
weren’t for digital
technology, that new
work might not have happened.”
—Kazue McGregor, librarian and
substitute flutist, Los Angeles Philharmonic
really copy­savvy would know how to
space it better. If the copyist really knows
his or her craft, we’re okay. But if they kind
of know it, then we end up spending time
rescuing them.”
Or, as Tarlow tartly puts it, “The compu
ter has taken a bad copyist with bad
handwriting and made them a bad copyist
with good handwriting.”
When music arrives via software like
Sibelius and Finale, however, orchestras
can alter it as necessary at their own computers.
Most orchestras now have librarians
who are fluent in that software and
capable of correcting notes, re­sizing bars,
or creating and inserting a replacement
passage or two. But even those software
programs need the eye and ear of a good
copyist when it comes to generating parts
that are easy for musicians to read.
“It’s not a matter of pushing the ‘partextract’
button and then having the parts
spit out,” says Kazue McGregor, a lib rarian
(and frequent substitute flutist) at the Los
Angeles Philharmonic. She recalls the challenges
her staff faced with Anders Hillborg’s
Eleven Gates, which had its world
pre miere at the Philharmonic in May
2006. “The violins had sixteen different
lines,” says McGregor. “The second violins
had fourteen different lines, the violas had
twelve, the cellos had ten. If the copyist had
pushed ‘part­extract,’ it would have been a
mess. But he really studied the score and
figured out how best to write the parts.”
Details, Details
Like most orchestra librarians, McGregor
sees drawbacks as well as benefits in the
new digital technology. But she has no
doubts that its speed is an unmitigated
blessing, especially for composers having
trouble meeting a commission deadline.
“I always want music here six weeks in
advance of the first rehearsal,” she says.
“Thank goodness, we have composers
january–february 2008

who really work early, and we have it a
year before. Other composers are having
a tough time, but, man, their work is
worth it.” The last­minute arrival of a new
work is “obviously not an ideal situation,”
notes McGregor. “But if it weren’t for
dig ital technology, that new work or that
commission might not have happened.”
And mistakes in digital parts and scores
for those new works “can be tweaked
and corrected. You can consult with the
composer. Things that used to take weeks
can now be done much more easily.”
As Peter Conover, principal librarian
of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
observes, “For many years it took a long
time for music to get from the composer’s
mind to the player’s stand.” The process
is faster now, but with chronic problems
like mismatched page sizes, bad page
turns, and primitive formats for extracting
parts, it isn’t as perfect as it could be. And
Conover, for one, doesn’t expect much
improvement from the computer gurus
any time soon. “It’s pretty sophisticated
computer software for a niche market,” he
says, “so there’s not a lot of competition, or
a lot of motivation for these programs to
evolve quickly. Somebody could develop
music­copying software, but compared
with a video game, your market is going
to be infinitesimal.”
Developers of the electronic music stand
think they have answers to some of these
problems. With individual parts displayed
OTHER RESOuRCES
The League of American Orchestras sponsors
a listserv for librarians of mem ber
orches tras, providing them with opportunities
for feedback, advice, and the sharing
of resources. Another helpful service is
the Orchestra Library Information Yahoo!
Group founded by Thomas Pease and
Clinton F. Nie weg. This is primarily a
way to distribute tid bits of knowledge
collected by Nieweg, retired principal
librarian of the Phil adel phia Orchestra,
who has been a mentor to students of
orchestra librarianship for many years.
For more information, contact league@
americanorchestras.org.
s y m p h o n y
on an embedded computer screen, the
stands can be programmed to display
parts for thousands of orchestral works.
Players “turn pages” with a foot pedal,
and librarians can mark bowings and
make correc tions in one place and send
them to individual music stands. Many
in the orchestra world think the electronic
stand will eventually be ubiquitous on
symphonic stages.
But for orchestra librarians, the task
of facilitating trouble­free rehearsals and
concerts is all about detail, and they are not
yet ready to endorse electronic stands for
orchestral use. One obstacle they point to
is that the stands, which have power cords,
would significantly slow down stagehands
racing to rearrange the stage between, say,
a Haydn symphony and a Rachmaninoff
piano concerto. Patrick McGinn, librarian
at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra,
predicts that “ten years from now people
are still going to be using paper on the
stands; 50 years from now, maybe not.” If
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“Somebody could
develop musiccopying
software,
but compared with
a video game, your
market is going to be
infinitesimal.”
—Peter Conover, principal librarian,
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
e­stands become standard equipment for
young people studying music, say many
librarians, orchestras will begin using
them as that generation moves into the
field’s professional ranks.
Meanwhile, orchestra librarians are
oper ating in a transition zone. On one
hand, they love the way digital technology
has made their jobs easier. Tracking down
performance dates and detailed instrumentation,
for example, is now as easy as
firing up a search engine and pushing a
button. Few librarians, however, see digital
technology as an unalloyed blessing. Farabee,
for one, isn’t thrilled about the new
digitized scores and parts the National
classicalkidslive.com
what great educational entertainment should be.
61

62
Executive Directors:
Do you sometimes feel “stuck”?
Don’t Miss this Forum for Executive Directors
“Leading Creatively – the Art of Making Sense”
The Orchestra Leadership Academy is made possible by grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
The HearstFoundation, Inc., The Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment
for the Arts, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs,
Con Edison, and a gift from Daniel R. Lewis.
This seminar is made possible in part by a generous grant from Con Edison.
2008
season
ORCHESTRA
LEADERSHIP
ACADEMY
american symphony orchestra league
Tuesday & Wednesday, January 29-30, 2008
New York City
Do you, as an executive director, sometimes feel “stuck”? Do you sometimes
feel caught, navigating through issues that challenge traditional responses –
where staff, board, and musicians may bring dramatically different perspectives
to the topic?
Most leaders don’t use all the skills at their disposal to respond creatively to
complex challenges. This seminar will assist executive directors to develop
“creative leadership competencies” that will help them craft effective action
plans that address turbulence and move the institution forward.
Work with David Horth and Charles J. Palus from the Center for Creative
Leadership (ranked in the top ten for executive leadership training and
research by Financial Times). Horth and Palus are co-authors of “The Leader’s
Edge: Six Creative Competencies for Navigating Complex Challenges.”
Tuesday & Wednesday, January 29-30, 2008
(following Mid-Winter Managers’ Meeting)
For more details, visit
www.americanorchestras.org/leadership_seminars/index.html
Learning and Leadership Development from
the League of American Orchestras
Symphony is receiving from music publishers.
“I feel that our role is taking us
down the path to becoming a publisher,
and I don’t really want to go there.”
Every orchestra librarian understands the
emotional attachment some veteran players
have to those decades­old, often­battered
orchestral parts, with all their discolored
pages and multiple erasure markings, that
were on the stands when these musicians
played under Solti or Szell as awestruck
neophytes. In this respect orchestra librarians,
for the immediate future at least, will
serve as gatekeepers between the old and
the new. “People who are behind the new
technology want the field—the art, if you
will—to conform to the technology,” says
Conover. “Those of us on the other side
say, ‘No, the technology has to con form to
the art.’” T
Wynne Delacoma is a Chicago-based music
journalist. From 1991 to 2006 she was classical
music critic of the Chicago Sun-Times.
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